Michael Drinkwater of Woosehill, must pay the cash within three months or face two years in jail, following a confiscation order hearing at Reading Crown Court yesterday.

Drinkwater, from Windmill Avenue, previously admitted keeping a brothel at Ogden Park, Bullbrook, after police raided the house in March.

The search revealed £5,000 in cash which was seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Wei Yi Wang, a 53-year-old Chinese prostitute living at the address, was also arrested on suspicion of being an immigration overstayer.

The court heard Drinkwater rented the flat for six years for Miss Wang who he was having a relationship with.

At a previous hearing the court was told he had spent much of his pension and inheritance on the flat and paid her gambling debts of more than £20,000 in a bid to stop her plying her trade.

Drinkwater admitted he had rented the premises and placed adverts allowing it to be used as a brothel at Reading Crown Court in July and was sentenced in August to eight months imprisonment suspended for 12 months by Judge Richard Parkes.

During the investigation, Accredited Financial Investigator (AFI) Steve Tedder, from the Economic Crime Unit (ECU) Asset Recovery Team, established the amount Drinkwater had benefited from the running of the brothel was £156,163, and he had sufficient assets, including cash, property and vehicles, to satisfy a confiscation order in this amount.

AFI Tedder said: “This is another example of how the work of the Asset Recovery Team is proving to criminals that crime does not pay, and showing members of the public that we will tackle criminality in their communities and take the case from those who live off the proceeds of crime.”

If Drinkwater fails to pay, he will be jailed and will still have to repay the cash.